Joe Biden’s train ride to Kyiv makes history but will it win him a second term?
by Julian Borger in Warsaw from US news | The Guardian on (#691WX)
Visit to Ukraine is a defining moment for the US president but foreign policy does not necessarily win elections
John F Kennedy and Ronald Reagan had their speeches in Berlin. Joe Biden now has Kyiv, a moment to define his presidency and its era.
There was no one phrase in Biden's remarks in Kyiv to match Kennedy's Ich bin ein Berliner" in 1963 or Reagan's Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall" in 1987, but the trip itself was the statement. As the White House underlined repeatedly on Monday, there was no precedent in modern times. Visits to the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq were different, as the US military ran security in those countries.
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